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What rules do you impose when playing?

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May 8, 2007
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WC is actually pretty easy if you try it (and gets dull) so many players opt to set restrictions and rules. What do you impose on yourself?


I....


1. Avoid Excommunicating Dukes or Kings.
2. Avoid grabbing Duke or King titles. (grabbing Duke titles permitted if Emperor though)
3. Avoid vassalizing anyone who isn't already based in an area that's in my kingdom- provinces must be taken first.
4. Only grab territory bordering yours or that is a reasonable sea province.
5. No "Blitzkreig" on Christian neighbors, war must be declared prior to organizing the troops. (as the AI does not "blitzkreig" you)
 
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1. Only claim titles that have borders with your realm

2. Only fight Muslims and Pagans when there is a crusade going on

3. When you are a king only have duke-level vassals and each duke must have the default counties that make up his duchy (either as his demesne or as a subvassal). No duke (including your heir) can have more then one duke-title.

4. Only marry woman within your realm, culture or who border your realm.
 
My rules?

They have evolved of course.

I tend to marry first within my culture to the other leading dukes and counts. Also, if I wish to continue a favorite courtier dynasty for whatever reason. Secondly, into England and the nations bordering the Irish Sea. Then southwards to Brittany and the Aquitainia coast. This is also where I send my youth to be fostered. On occasion if there is a female ruler on the March and she won’t agree to a marriage (its hardcoded) but it would otherwise seem plausible, then I do F12 in those circumstances.

I try and contain my foreign policy to what that nation would normally be influenced by, chiefly uniting Wales and possibly expanding east to the Severn River and the Dee (Chester, Shrewsbury, and Hereford in game), also Cornwall. Then, I try and go Crusading. Lol.
 
The one I find most fun is simply NOT grabbing titles at all, and relying on marriages/inheritances/events for all claims.

The only exception I have to this rule is when a bordering ruler is excommunicated and then I restrict myself to grabbing primary title only.

I like the idea of not fighting other christian rulers during a crusade, though, as stated above. It is too easy to go invade a neighbor while all their troops are adventuring in the middle east and there is no one left home to defend the realm. I think I'll play with this one from now on too.
 
As I've stated before on this forum, I play my characters according to their traits rather than what I want to do. There's quite a few games where I let my realm fall apart, as my character was too inept, cruel, crazy, cowardly etc to do anything about it.
 
I tend to try and culture convert all my own demesne if possible. Also I try to keep my dynasty in the original culture all through the game.

I also dislike large realsm, and will happily give out King titles that I don't feel belong in my empire. F.x. starting as the Nakonids of Lübeck and conquered most of Netherlands and created the Kingdom of Lotharingia ... then after I figured out how to create a new non-creatable king title for my Wendian kingdom, i gave away the Lotharingian crown as I wanted a baltic empire.
 
Sallic Consanguity, Popular Law, Royal Supremecy are my laws, high intrigue heir, build up a strong demesne core. Always Keep the same regions held over for the main heir to hold.

Try an maintain a united same culture. Do not over reach, only royal sons become dukes and must hold the whole duchy in demesne. If anyone is to be a count alone they must be under the lordship of a Duke or an Archbishop. (Bishops may not be under ducal or archdiocies).
 
always used:

- role playing characters.
This can be devastating when telling the pope to mind his own business (sceptical), or leading the men 'once more onto the breach' again and again (brave) :D


used when I can influence big things (at least a duke)

- keeping dynasties alive.
Never revoke the last count title. Don't give out duke title when there are more families in a duchy.

- if the turks cannot destroy Byzantium, then do everything to free Europe from the Byzantines

- when I am a local power (= can defeat countries on battlefield) play for a balance of power. Never fully destroy HRE for example, only take bits and pieces.
 
I role-play, except when choosing courtiers- I just choose the best ones. ^^;
I also don't take brides from far-away places, only countries that border mine or are easily accessible by sea.
Sometimes, if something really interesting happens to a nation (Hungary converted to Orthodoxy in one of my more recent games), I'll try to defend that nation... This wasn't really needed for Hungary though. :)
I don't allow myself to declare war unless the person I'm playing as has a very aggressive trait (cruel for example) or minor-aggressive trait and a rivalry.
 
The big one for me is never force-vassalising heathens. I have to take their land and redistribute it. Makes crusades much less appealing. I aspire to but have not yet had a game where I avoided ever claiming a title (instead using only marriages, event-titles, outside-vassalizations, and crusades to expand).

Also: focus on same-culture, same-religion provinces or regional goals. So, as England, Scotland, or a Welsh or Irish duchy, my goal is to take over the entire British Isles. For Castille, Aragon, Navarra, etc. my goal is to finish the reconquista and possibly take Morocco and liberate Africa or Egypt. As one of the Scandinavian powers, I want to take over all the Scandinavian states plus Finland. Etc.

I also try to role-play and I think I'll try to not fight other Christians during a Crusade (well, as long as my ruler is fairly pious!).
 
For myself, the big one's have been said. Duchies have to be distrubuted in their proper area. I won't give out a Duchy unless a character is a friend or is somehow related to my ruling dynasty. With multiple King titles, I maintain at least one province, usually where the largest or most prestigious city would be, and maintain it as the capital of that Kingdom and in my personal demense. Set aside one particular ducal title as the heir's title. Avoid claiming titles unless realistic/event, but marry for land grabs (never really succeeds, but I try ;)).

~Hawk
 
1). Proper duke titles distribution.

2). Saving duke titles for current ruler, his heir and as many other males of my dinasty as possible. For example my kings of Sicily are always dukes of Sicily, and their heirs are mainly dukes of Appulia (or, some times, Tunis).

3). It also causes me to weaken vassals with two and more duke titles.

4). Hate having many king titles, especially in faraway demences with different cultures. Being king of Sicily, Africa and Croatia is not cool... so Croatia was estabilished as independent kingdom - with brother of current Sicilian king as monarch.

5). No more rules! And even previous may be changed - if it is for the great fun! Sometimes it is interesting to start as duke of Tulusa and become king of Aquitania in 6 years - in cost of at about 500 gold, 4 assasinations (spouse of Aquitanian princess-heir, her father, herself and her little son - heir of Tulusa), kinslayer trait, a lot of disloyal vassals and agressive France-German aliance nearby. Sometimes it's better to create your kingdom slowly...
I played only 3 games, so still want to try many different ways of gaining glory!-)
 
Did those assassinations effect your reputation in any way?
Click to expand...
Ofcourse. And "kinslayer" trait is also rather bad thing to live with. But that was funny.

First two years I was increasing my demence by revoking titles of my two-province-count vassal. So I had well enought income. Than, for the next two years, I was building training grounds in my provinces. After that was finished, I began to collect money for crusades. There were no good other opinions. Than my ruler's wife died, "giving life" to stillborn child. I started to study the sucsession lines of my neighbourths. And found, that there is a chance for one woman to become a duchess of Aquitania and Gascone (etc.). She was already married, but young and cool... so... "Why not? I have some money to kill her unsuitable husband!" - the duke decided. One person was buried, another one - married. Soon the young wife of duke was pregnant. But her father was not old, and had a pregnant wife too... So there was a chance that he will have a male heir. And duke of Tulusa dreamed that his son will become King of Aquitania... so... "Why not? I have some money to kill my wife's unsuitable father!" One person was buried, another one - became duchess. Soon she gave life to silly and ugly son. And became depressed. So there was a chance that her child will die, and Aquitania will be inherited by her uncle... so... "Why not? I have some money to kill my wife! She's depressed, and I can find another young fertile girl!" One person was buried, and another one (young and silly) became a duke. But duke with "0" intrigue ability is a good way to make his vassals disloyal, so... :) All hail duke of Tulusa, Aquitania and Gascone (etc.), King of Aquitania! He is bad-reputated kinslayer with lots of disloyal vassals, but still king. His reputation changed when he gave up his duke titles to his most loyal vassals, and conflict with France (claim-holders of our lands) and Germany (their allies) lasted for at about two month - Pope (God bless the Pope!) said "Pax! Pax!" and we decided to stop killing each other. But King of Aquitania was still hated by many. He died in battle with his vassal. His heir was zealous and became great crusader, saving Burgos from muslims.

You see that I had to asassinate 3 dukes. That is a lot of money. Two marriages helped to gain some.

My english is too bad to write AARs.
 
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- Always proper command structure. King -> Dukes -> Counts. No Dukes without Counts, no Counts attached to the King.
- Always use vassal army not my own. :p
- Marry girls that look kind of cute even if they aren't the best genetic or political match.
- Play cool dynasties only. Always read history of the family I'm playing and what they did in real history. If I don't like it, don't play them.

I left one unfinished thing: Good long empire-building game as Georgia. Maybe I'll plunder my house for the CD and try to do it one of these days... :)
 
Since I'm just learning this game this is a good thread as I didn't realise there was so much "role-playing" effort being put into it. :) I'll be trying to implement some of them.


argumentator said:
4). Being king of Sicily, Africa and Croatia is not cool... so Croatia was estabilished as independent kingdom - with brother of current Sicilian king as monarch.
Click to expand...

If your Sicily line died out (for some odd reason) would you then "become" King of Croatia?


"Gulluoglu" mentioned not "grabbing titles" or declaring war but waiting for events/marriages etc to gain provinces. It sounds like he is talking about hanging around and doing nothing for decades & decades just waiting for such a chance. That does not sound very "fun" at all. If I had a claim I would press it for something to do.

And "delra" said he only marries the "cute" brides, he must have a modded set of portraits then as I'd have a hard time calling any of them really "cute." :rolleyes:
 
Arhem, if for some reason all Sicilian de Hautevills die, than Croatian King will become next in succession line (that is practically impossible, cause there is a lot of de Hautevills). So I can't become King of Croatia only - I'll only recover all granted king titles. But I can load as Croatian King and start to rule Croatia... Maybe I'll make such a thing, playing France or Tolouse and estabilishing crusader states in Holy Land.
 
Arhem said:
"Gulluoglu" mentioned not "grabbing titles" or declaring war but waiting for events/marriages etc to gain provinces. It sounds like he is talking about hanging around and doing nothing for decades & decades just waiting for such a chance. That does not sound very "fun" at all. If I had a claim I would press it for something to do.
Click to expand...

Mostly what I meant by that is that I won't use the 'grab title' button unless it's on an excommunicated neighbor. That doesn't mean I'm sitting around doing nothing, because I would agree, that's boring! :D

When I play I try to marry my sons to women who have a lot of claims to pass onto their kids of lands I want to be able to conquer, and I also send my kids to be fosterlings in courts I want to conquer for the same reason -- usually there are events that can fire that will give those kids claims on either that title or titles nearby or the fosterling ruler and my current ruler will become friends/enemies. Rivalries can also spawn events which generate claims. When I have claims, I definitely rally the troops and go press them with the sword or go on crusades because all those wars are free.

I tend to look at the 'grab title' button as a type of cheat that I opt not to use (and I use Dynastic Glory, so I hate sacrificing prestige); the only reason I see it reasonable to use against excommunicated neighbors because this is exactly what the Pope used to do. If a ruler became excommunicated, it was not unheard of for the Pope to promise to recognize someone else as the legitimate leader if they went and "liberated" those lands from the excommunicate.
 
Roleplaying. And marrying daughters of the biggest rulers in Europe.

Recently, because of roleplay, I got into a war to unite the Roman Empires. The kingdom of Sicily (Italy, Spain, Mauretania, Africa, Egypt, Croatia) led by the super ambitious reckless 18 year old Sciarra de Hauteville attacked the Byzantine Empire which seemed like a good idea.

2 years into the war and I'm afraid to load the game. Europe has gone bonkers.
 
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